III.    CRIMINAL  AGGRESSION':  BY  WHOM 

COMMITTED  ?  E 

u  Whatsoever  a  man  soweth  that  shall  he  also  reap." 


AN    INQUIRY 

15  V 

EDWARD  ATKINSON,  LL.D.,  PH.D., 

BROOKLINE,   MASS.,   FEBRUARY   22,    1899. 


A    SEQUEL    TO 

I.    THE  COST  OF  A  NATIONAL  CRIME. 
II.   THE  HELL  OF  WAR  AND  ITS  PENALTIES. 


Sixth  Edition,  Making  Nine  Thousand  Folk  Hundred  Copies. 


[Funds  are  wanted  for  printing,  stamping,  and  mailing  future  editions  of  this 
pamphlet.  Price  per  hundred,  two  dollars,  with  express  charges.  Price  per  hundred, 
wrapped,  stamped  and  mailed,  four  dollars. 

Funds  are  also  wanted  for  printing,  stamping,  and  mailing  my  first  pamphlet,  tl  I. 
The  Cost  of  a  National  Crime.  II.  The  Hell  of  War  and  its  Penalties,"  at  the  same 
terms. 

Mailing  lists  are  desired.  Remit  for  single  copies  of  both  pamphlets,  with  postage, 
six  cents  in  postage  stamps. 

Address  Edward  Atkinson,  Box  112,  Boston,  Mass.] 


PREFACE    TO     THIRD     EDITION. 

CRIMINAL    AGGRESSION    IN    THE    PHILIPPINE    ISLANDS. 
The  Commercial  Aspect. 

The  remarks  of  Benjamin  Franklin  upon  the  burning  of  the  coast  towns  of  the 
American  Colonies  in  the  War  of  the  Revolution  may  be  read  in  connection  with  the 
burning  and  destruction  of  towns  and  cities  in  the  Philippine  Islands  : 

'•  Britain  must  certainly  be  distracted.  No  tradesman  out  of  Bedlam  ever  thought 
of  increasing  the  number  of  his  customers  by  knocking  them  on  the  head,  or  of 
enabling  them  to  pay  their  debts  by  burning  their  houses." 

Missionary  Aspect. 
The  attention  of  the  clergy  and  of  others  who  advocate  the  enforcement  of  Chris- 
tianity at  the  point  of  the  bayonet  is  called  to  the  following  extract  from  a  letter  of  a 
correspondent  of  the  "  Evening  Post  "  : 

The  country  between  Marilao  and  Manila  present*  a  picture  of  desolation.  Smoke  is  curling 
from  hundreds  of  ash  heaps,  and  the  remains  of  trees  and  fences  torn  by  shrapnel  are  to  be  seen  every- 
where. The  general  appearance  of  the  country  is  as  if  it  had  been  swept  by  a  cyclone.  The  roads  are 
strewn  with  furniture  and  clothing  dropped  in  (light  by  the  Filipinos.  The  only  persons  remaining 
behind  are  a  few  aged  persons,  too  intirm  to  escape.  They  camp  beside  the  ruins  of  their  former  homes 
and  beg  passers-by  for  any  kind  of  assistance.  The  majority  of  them  are  living  on  the  generosity  of  our 
soldiers,  who  give  them  portions  of  their  rations.  The  dogs  of  the  Filipinos  cower  iu  the  bushes,  still 
terrified  and  barking,  while  hundreds  of  pigs  are  to  be  seen  busily  searching  for  food. 

Bodies  of  dead  Filipinos  are  stranded  in  the  shallows  of  the  river,  or  are  lying  in  the  jungle 
where  they  crawled  to  die,  or  were  left  in  the  wake  of  the  hurriedly  retreating  army.  These  bodies  give 
forth  a  horrible  stench,  but  there  is  no  time  now  to  bury  them. 

The  inhabitants  who  tied  from  Marilao  and  Meycauayan  left  in  such  a  panic  that  on  the  tables 
our  soldiers  found  money  and  valuables,  and  iu  the  rooms  were  trunks  containing  property  of  value. 
This  was  the  case  in  most  of  the  houses  deserted.  They  were  not  molested  by  our  soldiers,  but  the 
Chinese,  who  slip  in  between  the  armies,  are  looting  when  they  can,  and  have  taken  possession  of  sev- 
eral houses,  over  which  they  raised  Chinese  Hags,  some  of  which  were  afterwards  torn  down. 

An  old  woman  was  found  hidden  in  a  house  at  Meycauayan  yesterday,  just  dead,  apparently 
from  fright  and  hunger. 

The  old  woman  named  in  the  last  paragraph  may  be  cited  as  one  converted  in  tins 
missionary  enterprise. 

Sanitary  Aspect. 

General  Otis  reports  that  only  eight  to  nine  per  cent,  of  the  army  was  in  hospital 
or  on  the  sick  list  in  March,  before  the  hot  season  or  the  aggressive  campaign  had 
been  entered  upon.  Only  !  The  navy  has  lent  several  naval  surgeons  to  the  army  to 
assist  in  the  care  of  the  sick  and  wounded.  The  medical  authorities  have  ordered  that 
all  soldiers  attacked  with  dysentery  and  rheumatism,  two  of  the  most  common  causes 
of  disease  in  the  tropics,  must  be  immediately  removed  from  the  Philippine  Islands,  as 
they  cannot  be  cured  in  that  climate. 

Nine  per  cent,  on  40,000  comes  to  "  only  "  3,000  sick,  to  whom  may  be  added  over 
1,000  wounded.  When  the  hot  and- then  the  wet  season,  the  malarial  air  of  the  jungle, 
and  the  bail  water  outside  of  camp  begin  to  exert  their  malignant  influence,  how  many 
will  then  become  the  victims  of  the  criminal  aggression  now  being  directed  by  Presi- 
dent McKitdey,  who,  having  asserted  that  the  responsibility  rests  with  Congress  and 
with  the  American  people,  now  fails  to  call  Congress  together,  and  continues  the  car- 
nage of  the  Filipinos  and  the  ghastly  sacrifice  of  American  soldiers  in  a  bad  cause  to 
them  repulsive,  on  his  sole  responsibility. 

Repulsivk  and  Ghastly  Aspect  of  Burning  and  Slaughter. 

Private  letters  from  officers  and  their  wives,  from  which  extracts  have  been  printed, 
coupled  with  numerous  private  letters  from  volunteers  in  the  army  which  cannot  be 
printed  without  danger  to  them,  have  fully  disclosed  the  shocking  atrocity  now  being 
committed  in  the  slaughter  of  the  Filipinos.  Their  accounts  of  disease  and  death  also 
convey  the  truth  to  the  people  of  this  country,  while  the  telegraph  is  not  free,  such 
communications  being  under  censorship. 

It  does  not  yet  appear  by  whom  the  fighting  was  begun.  It  does  appear,  however, 
in  the  latest  reports,  that  the  lines  of  the  Philippine  army  were  forced  by  troops  of  the 
United  States  before  any  attack  of  any  organized  force  had  been  made  upon  the  lines  of 
our  troops.  How  this  happened  may  perhaps  be  explained  by  the  following  abstract 
from  a  private  letter  from  a  very  acute  American  observer  now  in  Japan,  which  was 
written  after  the  army  officers  who  had  placed  Aguinaldo  in  command  of  the  Philippine 
forces  had  been  superseded  by  the  general  now  in  chief  command  : 

"  I  left  before  actual  fighting  began,  but  I  saw  a  condition  of  things  that  was  as 
much  like  war  as  it  could  be  when  war  was  not;  and  now  the  terrible  result  of  the 
ignorance,  incompetence,  and  unhappy  temperament  of  our  Manila  commander  has 
come.  The  Administration  put  the  general  in  command  in  the  way  of  emphasizing  his 
own  unfortunate  method  of  managing  things.  Chiefly  is  the  American  direction  of  affairs 
at  Manila  to  blame  for  the  fact  that  the  insurgents  changed  from  friends  to  being  our 
foes." 

Were  this  correspondent  here  his  name  would  carry  authority.  Not  being  here  I 
cannot  give  it,  but  I  vouch  for  his  capacity  as  an  observer. 

EDWARD    ATKINSON. 

Hkooki.ine,  March  31,1899. 


III. 

CRIMINAL    AGGRESSION  : 

13 Y   WHOM   COMMITTED? 

In  November,  1898,  a  danger  became  dimly  foreseen  that  this  country 
might  be  committed  to  acts  of  criminal  aggression  which  the  President  had 
denounced  in  April  in  his  message  to  Congress  giving  the  reasons  why  the 
oppressive  rule  of  Spain  should  be  removed  by  force  from  the  Island  of  Cuba. 

Many  persons  who  had  believed  and  who  still  believe  that  the  rule  of  Spain 
could  have  been  removed  without  resort  to  war,  yet  when  war  was  declared  °-ave 
their  support  to  the  Government  and  their  approval  to  every  measure  deemed 
necessary  to  the  conduct  of  the  war. 

A  few  distrusted  the  sincerity  of  the  President  and  anticipated  the  evil  events 
that  have  ensued.  The  writer  was  not  then  one  of  those  who  shared  in  the  dis- 
trust of  the  Executive,  although  he  feared  the  influence  of  those  by  whom  he 
then  believed  and  still  believes  the  President  had  been  forced  to  a  premature 
and  unseasonable  exercise  of  force.  Is  there  not  sufficient  proof  of  a  combina- 
tion organized  for  the  purpose  of  criminal  aggression  which  the  President  had 
denounced,  but  to  which  he  has  for  the  time  submitted  ? 

With  the  purpose  of  sustaining  the  President  and  to  aid  him  in  suppressing 
these  malignant  influences  the  writer  prepared  two  treatises  upon 

I.     The  Cost  of  a  National  Crime. 
II.     The  Hell  of  War  and  its  Penalties. 

When  the  forecast  of  a  deficienc}'  of  $150,000,000  in  the  next  fiscal  year  was 
first  published  in  November  the  estimate  was  received  with  derision  by  thought- 
less persons.  Many  times  the  writer  was  asked  why  the  revenues  of  the  tropical 
islands  falling  into  our  possession  on  which  Spain  had  battened  should  not  suffice 
to  sustain  their  government. 

The  venal  yellow  press  not  only  derided  this  estimate,  but  attempted  to  dis- 
credit the  writer  by  gibes  and  sneers  which  simply  increased  the  contempt  in 
which  such  paf>ers  are  held. 

How  stands  the  case  in  February,  1899,  four  months  later?  The  representa- 
tives of  the  Government  in  the  House  of  Representatives  now  forecast  a  deficiency 
in  the  next  fiscal  year  of  much  greater  amount  than  the  writer's  guarded  estimate, 
while  the  deficiency  of  the  present  year  will  exceed  the  estimate  of  the  Secretary 
of  the  Treasury  given  in  his  annual  report  by  at  least  forty  per  cent. 

In  order  to  sustain  the  President  in  avoiding  criminal  aggression,  the  writer 
also  secured  from  abroad  the  ghastly  evidence  of  the  penalties  of  the  Hell  of  War 
contained  in  the  second  treatise. 

It  is  not  a  pleasant  duty  to  prepare  this  third  treatise  showing  how  public 
trust  has  been  betrayed  and  by  whom.  It  Avill  again  invoke  obloquy  and  abuse, 
but  to  any  one  who  was  bred  in  the  time  when  resistance  to  the  national  crime  of 
slavery  brought  out  similar  abuse,  and  even  personal  danger,  these  attacks  but 
give  support  to  the  opponents  of  criminal  aggression  as  they  did  fifty  j^ears  ao-o 
to  the  agitation  against  slavery  then  represented  by  Garrison  and  Sumner,  by 
Giddings  of  Ohio  and  Hale  of  New  Hampshire,  by  John  Q.uincy  Adams  of  Massa- 

1  Note  to  Third  Edition,  March  30,  1899.  —  This  warning  was  sufficient,  and  some  of  the 
grossest  measures  of  excessive  appropriations  were  stopped.  Whether  the  actual  appropriations  made 
for  the  conduct  of  the  war  will  suffice  is  very  doubtful.     Time  only  will  suffice  to  determiue  the  fact. 


4  CRIMINAL    AGGRESSION  :     BY     WHOM    COMMITTED? 

chusetts,  and  by  Seward  of  New  York.  These  personal  attacks  are  but  evi- 
dence of  the  tribute  that  unscrupulous  and  depraved  men  have  always  paid  to 
those  who  have  defended  the  honor  and  integrity  of  the  nation  ;  this  tribute 
was  rendered  to  the  men  who  redeemed  it  from  the  crime  of  slavery,  so  it 
will  be  to  the  men  who  hope  and  expect  now  to  redeem  it  from  criminal 
aggression. 

It  was  assumed  that  President  McKinley  would  avail  himself  of  the  opportu- 
nity given  at  the  dinner  of  the  Home  Market  Club  to  announce  a  positive  policy. 
Yet  we  find  in  that  speech  but  two  positive  statements. 

The  first  is  in  the  following  words:  "  Every  present  obligation  has  been  met 
and  fulfilled  in  the  expulsion  of  Spanish  sovereignty  from  the  islands."1 

The  second  declaration  is  in  these  terms  :  "  Xo  imperial  designs  lurk  in  the 
American  mind.     They  are  alien  to  American  sentiment,  thought,  and  purpose." 

In  these  words  the  President  adopts  the  principles  of  the  Anti-Imperialist 
League  and  justifies  all  that  has  been  done  or  said  by  that  league.  It  becomes 
necessary,  however,  to  review  the  rest  of  the  speech.  Respect  for  the  office  of 
President  may  not  release  the  humblest  citizens  from  the  duty  of  bringing  its 
incumbent  before  the  bar  of  public  opinion  when  he  transgresses.  Having  been 
called  upon  to  address  a  club  of  clergymen,  I  have  recast  my  address  to  them  in 
this  treatise,  No.  ;?,  under  the  title,  "  Criminal  Aggression,  by  Whom  Com- 
mitted ?  " 

Gentlemen :  I  was  very  glad  to  receive  the  invitation  to  address  members  of 
the  clergy  in  this  emergency,  for  it  seems  to  me  that  a  duty  has  come  upon  the 
clergy  of  this  country  corresponding  to  that  which  led  to  the  protest  of  the  three 
thousand  ministers  against  the  crime  of  slavery  a  few  years  before  the  Civil  War 
ensued  in  which  slavery  destroyed  itself. 

We  are  in  an  emergency  to-day  as  serious  as  that  which  then  threatened 
the  life  of  this  nation.  The  honor  of  this  nation  is  now  compromised  by  an 
aggressive  war  of  forcible  annexation  under  the  lead  of  a  President  who  attained 
the  confidence  of  this  country  a  short  year  since  by  declaring  that  he  then  spoke 
not  "  of  forcible  annexation,  for  that,  by  our  code  of  morality,  would  be  criminal 
aggression."1  Have  we  changed  our  code?  If  not,  who  is  responsible  for  the 
criminal  aggressions  upon  and  the  slaughter  of  the  people  of  the  Philippine 
islands  by  thousands  ? 

I  was  reading  last  evening  Trevelyan"s  "  History  of  the  American  Revolu- 
tion,11 and  I  came  across  this  report.  In  one  of  the  great  debates  of  1774  Stephen 
Fox,  the  brother  of  Charles  James  Fox,  speaking  of  the  condition  of  affairs  in 
this  country,  said:  "  I  rise,  Sir,  with  an  utter  detestation  and  abhorrence  of  the 
present  measures.  We  are  either  to  treat  the  Americans  (read,  if  you  please, 
4  Filipinos  ')  as  subjects  or  as  l-ebels.  If  we  treat  them  as  subjects  the  bill  goes 
too  far;  if  as  rebels,  it  does  not  go  far  enough.  We  have  refused  to  hear  the 
parties  in  their  defence,  and  we  are  going  to  destroy  their  charter  (read  deprive 
them  of  their  rights)  without  knowing  the  constitution  of  their  Government." 
<  !ould  a  closer  parallel  be  brought  between  the  conditions  of  177-1  when  we  were 
the  rebels  and  the  conditions  of  the  Filipinos  to-day  in  their  resistance  to  the 
effort  to  put  a  foreign  rule  upon  them,  in  their  refusal  to  be  deprived  of  their 
rights,  and  in  their  objection  to  accept  the  gospel  of  peace  at  the  point  of  the  bay- 
onet with  the  slaughter  of  thousands  under  the  rapid-fire  guns  ? 

Now,  I  propose  to  deal  with  this  question  consecutively.  We  were  driven 
prematurely  into  a  war  which  may  have  been  necessary  for  the  removal  of  Span- 
ish oppression  from  the  Island  of  Cuba.  It  is  useless  now  to  discuss  the  question 
whether  that  war  was  necessaiy  or  not. 


CHIMIN A L    AGGRESSION:    HY     WHOM    COMMITTED  / 


We  entered  into  what  one  may  at  least  declare  was  an  unseasonable  dec- 
laration of  war  before  we  were  prepared  and  at  the  time  when  the  utmost 
hazard  of  the  tropical  climate  was  upon  us.  But  even  if  that  war  was  inevitable 
does  any  one  suppose  that  the  war  would  have  occurred  had  Lincoln  been  Presi- 
dent, who  resisted  even  the  moral  purpose  of  this  country  for  two  years  until  he 
knew  the  country  would  support  him  in  emancipation  ?  Does  any  one  suppose 
that  if  lie  had  been  the  President  of  the  United  States  any  men  of  the  char- 
acter and  quality  of  the  jingo  Senators  could  have  foi'ced  his  hand?  Does  any 
one  suppose  that  Grant  would  have  submitted  to  such  dictation  ?  Does  any  one 
suppose  that  if  Cleveland  had  been  there,  even  though  he  himself  had  declared 
that  it  might  become  necessary  to  deal  with  Cuba  by  force,  he  would  have 
allowed  his  hand  to  be  forced  by  the  venal  pressure  of  the  yellow  press  and  its 
Senatorial  emissaries  to  Cuba?  Is  it  not  our  misfortune  to  have  had  in  the  chair 
of  the  President  of  the  United  States  a  man  of  weak  and  uncertain  purpose  with- 
out convictions  and  unequal  to  the  emergency :  who,  having  declared  that  an  act 
of  aggression  would  be  a  national  crime,  has  trilled  with  the  question  ?  Did  he 
not  in  his  recent  apologetic  speech  before  the  Home  Market  Club  seek  to  find  a 
way  out  of  the  evil  conditions  into  which  he  has  led  the  country  by  divesting 
himself  of  the  responsibility  and  trying  to  throw  it  all  on  the  Congress  of  the 
United  States  ?  I  think  it  is  time  to  speak  and  to  speak  plainly.  William 
McKinley  is  the  President  of  the  United  States.  He  was  treated  with  respect  in 
Boston  as  the  President  of  the  United  States,  but  it  was  a  great  misfortune  that 
even  the  members  of  the  Home  Market  Club  who  utterly  oppose  expansion  were 
under  such  obligation  that  none  were  able,  owing  to  the  courtesy  of  the  occasion, 
to  say  one  word  in  resistance  to  expansion  or  to  the  apparent  policy  of  the  Presi- 
dent. Therefore  the  President  may  have  returned  under  the  impression  that  he 
is  sustained  in  acts  of  criminal  aggression  here  in  Boston  when  we  know  that  the 
moral  sense  of  the  community  —  the  conscience  of  the  community  —  is  being 
aroused  day  by  day  against  the  policy  which  he  represents. 

Let  us  look  a  little  into  the  history  of  this  matter. 

In  a  speech,  Dec.  15,  1898,  when  the  President  was  swinging  around  the 
circle,  dealing  with  audiences  from  the  rear  end  of  a  railway  train  and  taking  the 
shouts  of  the  crowd  as  an  indication  of  public  sentiment,  he  reached  Atlanta, 
and  there  he  used  these  words  : 

"  That  flag  has  been  planted  in  two  hemispheres  and  there  it  remains,  the 
symbol  of  liberty  and  law,  of  peace  and  progress.  Who  will  withdraw  from  the 
people  over  whom  it  floats  its  protecting  folds  ?     Who  will  pull  it  down  ?  " 

If  that  is  not  a  declaration  of  imperialism,  what  is  it? 

Who  took  down  the  flag  in  Mexico  and  gave  back  to  the  Mexicans  the  control 
of  their  own  affairs  after  we  had  made  conquest  of  their  country  ?  There  is  no 
such  word  in  the  President's  speech  to  the  Home  Market  Club.  Since  the  date  of 
the  Atlanta  speech  he  has  had  cause  to  change  his  tone.  Under  the  brave  lead  of 
our  Senator  Hoar,  supported  by  Senators  Jones,  of  Arkansas,  and  Caffery,  of 
Louisiana,  and  by  many  others  too  numerous  to  be  named  here,  it  has  been  made 
apparent  that  neither  the  common  sense  nor  the  conscience  of  this  country  will 
permit  criminal  aggression.  We  have  failed  in  defeating  cession  under  the 
treaty  because  there  were  many  true  men  who  are  with  the  opponents  of  ex- 
pansion absolutely,  who  thought  it  best  that  the  treaty  should  be  sustained  in 
order  that  Spain  might  be  divested  of  any  further  word  to  say  on  this  matter. 
The  opponents  of  imperialism,  of  expansion,  and  of  criminal  aggression  who 
voted  for  the  treaty  joined  with  the  opponents  of  the  treaty  are  a  majority  of  the 
present  Senate ;  many  of  them  feeling  indignant  because  they  have  been  forced 


6  CRIMINAL    AGGRESSION:    BY     WHOM    COMMITTED.' 

by  the  false  conditions  into  which  we  had  been  la-ought  by  the  President  to 
accept  the  treaty.  Though  there  are  grave  dangers  growing  out  of  the  accept- 
ance of  the  cession  of  the  Philippines,  they  are  not  insurmountable,  and  when 
the  will  of  the  country  is  exerted,  as  it  is  now  being  manifested,  the  Executive 
will  be  compelled  to  take  the  country  out  of  the  false  position  in  which  we  now 
are. 

Xow  then,  gentlemen,  as  to  this  speech  of  the  President  of  the  United  States. 
Is  it  not  an  adroit  rhetorical  evasion  of  the  pending  question  ?  Does  it  not  show 
that  he  is  still  waiting  to  find  out  what  will  be  popular  rather  than  what  will  be 
right':'  Or  what  will  control  the  future  politics  of  this  country  rather  than  what 
will  be  for  the  true  interest  and  honor  of  the  nation  ?  When  before  in  the  history 
of  this  country  has  a  treaty  been  sent  into  the  Senate  of  the  United  States  by  the 
President  without  a  message  giving  the  views  of  the  Executive,  or  the  grounds 
and  reasons  on  which  such  a  treaty  should  be  sustained  ?  Was  not  that  evasion 
Number  One  ?     Or  rather,  was  it  not  one  evasion  among  man}-  ? 

The  President  says  :  "  Many  who  were  impatient  for  the  conflict  a  year  ago, 
apparently  heedless  of  its  larger  results,  are  the  first  to  cry  out  against  the  far- 
reaching  consequences  of  their  own  act.'1  Against  whom  does  he  make  that  insinu- 
ation ?  Does  he  not  attempt  to  put  discredit,  without  naming  them,  upon  Senators 
who  voted  unwillingly  for  war,  unwillingly  for  the  treaty,  and  who  are  now  try- 
ing to  avoid  the  evil  consequences  of  the  conditions  in  which  he  and  his  adminis- 
tration have  put  them  ? 

Again  the  President  says:  "The  evolution  of  events,  which  no  man  could 
control,  has  brought  these  problems  upon  us.  Certain  it  is  that  they  have  not 
come  through  any  fault  on  our  own  part.11  Had  there  been  a  man  with  any 
power  of  will  to  direct  that  evolution  it  would  have  been  directed  as  human  evo- 
lution may  always  be  —  by  mental  energy,  in  the  right  and  not  in  the  wrong  direc- 
tion. It  is  easy  to  quote  evolution  in  evasion  of  duty  ;  easy  to  talk  about  manifest 
destiny  to  cover  a  crime.     It  is  the  weak  man  who  says  "  I  couldn't  help  it." 

Again  the  President  says:  "In  its  prosecution  and  conclusion  the  great 
majority  of  our  countrymen  of  every  section  believed  they  were  righting  in  a  just 
cause.11  This  it  true ;  they  were  fighting  in  the  cause  of  liberty,  and  they  had 
confidence  in  the  declaration  of  the  President  that  to  let  the  war  go  beyond  the 
restoration  of  liberty  to  an  oppressed  people  would  be  an  act  of  criminal  aggres- 
sion. 

The  President  says:  "The  Philippines,  like  Cuba  and  Porto  Rico,  were 
intrusted  to  our  hands  by  the  war,  and  to  that  great  trust,  under  the  providence 
of  God,  and  in  the  name  of  human  progress  and  civilization,  we  are  committed.11 
Intrusted  to  our  hands  ?  By  whom  P  How  did  we  get  possession  of  an  area  of 
about  ten  square  miles  or  less  which  was  all  there  was  in  the  possession  of  Spain 
and  which  is  all  there  is  to-day  in  our  possession  ?  We  secured  it  because  the 
people  trusted  us.  We  found  in  the  Philippine  islands  an  organized  army 
which  had  driven  the  Spaniards  from  every  part  of  the  islands  except  one  or  two 
cities  where,  through  their  navy,  the  Spaniards  were  enabled  to  sustain  them- 
selves. We  called  them  to  our  aid,  Admiral  Dewey  promoting  the  return  of  their 
chosen  leader,  Aguinaldo,  to  take  the  command  and  aid  in  the  removal  of  the 
oppression  of  Spain  from  that  little  corner  which  was  all  that  was  not  then  in  the 
possession  of  the  inhabitants  of  those  islands.  That  city  of  Manila  and  the  terri- 
tory within  range  of  our  guns  have  become  "  intrusted  to  our  hands  "  with  one 
city,  Iloilo,  since  added.  All  the  rest  is  intrusted  to  the  inhabitants  themselves. 
The  Island  of  Luzon  possesses  large  numbers  of  men  of  intelligence  who  have 
proven  their  capacity.     It  is  under  a  constitution  of  which  Senator  Hoar  says: 


CRIMINAL    AGGRESSION:     BY     WHOM    COMMITTED/  7 

"  There  are  not  ten  men  on  the  planet  who  could  have  made  one  better."  They 
have  an  organized  army.  They  have  rightfully  supplied  themselves  with  arms. 
Yet  these  people  Avho  trusted  us  have  been  slaughtered  by  thousands  by  American 
troops  acting  under  the  orders  of  President  McKinley. 

In  apology  and  excuse  for  his  previous  course  the  President  says  :  "  Congress 
can  declare  war,  but  a  higher  power  decrees  its  bounds  and  fixes  its  relations  and 
responsibilities.  The  President  can  direct  the  movements  of  soldiers  upon  the 
held,  and  the  fleets  upon  the  sea,  but  he  cannot  foresee  the  close  of  such  move- 
ments or  prescribe  their  limits."  Perhaps  he  could  not  prescribe  the  limits  —  the 
more  reason  to  count  the  cost  in  blood  and  treasure.  The  very  moment  this  war 
was  entered  upon  I  sent  to  Europe  for  the  sick  and  death  rates  of  the  British 
armies  in  India,  of  the  French  army  in  the  tropics,  and  of  the  Dutch  army  in  their 
colonies.  In  the  treatise  on  the  Hell  of  War  may  be  found  the  whole  ghastly 
record  to  which  for  want  of  foresight  we  are  about  to  expose  the  young  men  of 
this  country  unless  we  stop  this  national  crime  where  it  is.  One  example  may 
here  be  given : 

A  few  years  ago  France  undertook  the  conquest  of  Madagascar,  and  to  carry 
Christian  civilization  to  the  inhabitants  at  the  point  of  the  bayonet.  They  landed 
12,800  troops,  men  from  the  army  and  navy,  2,000  of  whom  were  in  colonial 
regiments  and  were  acclimated.  Madagascar  is  a  healthier  island  than  Luzon, 
not  as  near  the  equator.  In  ten  months  4,200  of  these  men  died.  The  rest  were 
so  disabled  that  in  one  regiment,  of  which  sixty  per  cent,  died,  not  one  single  man 
reached  the  objective  point.  In  Madagascar  the  French  are  now  trying  to  main- 
tain troops  under  a  sick  and  death  rate  that  they  are  afraid  to  have  published 
even  in  their  own  country. 

A^ain,  witness  the  condition  of  the  white  troops  in  India.  There  were 
70,000  Bi-itish  troops  in  India  in  1896.  In  that  year  the  admissions  to  hospital 
were  nearly  fourteen  hundred  men  to  each  thousand  on  the  average ;  that  is  to 
say,  the  whole  foi-ce  admitted  once,  nearly  four  hundred  twice  ;  the  average  term 
of  each  stay  in  hospital,  thirty-five  days.  That  average  includes  the  health  stations 
on  the  hills.  There  were  40,000  men  on  the  plains,  where  it  is  hot  and  mostly  dry. 
At  some  of  these  stations  admission  to  hospitals  ranged  from  2,000  to  3,400  for 
every  thousand  men.  The  conditions  in  India  are  not  nearly  as  bad  as  the 
malarious  conditions  in  the  Philippines  described  by  Professor  Worcester.  In 
such  hot  climates,  where  every  thought  of  morality  and  self-restraint  is  lost,  550 
in  every  1,000  in  India,  and  in  some  stations  850  and  1,015,  are  infected  with 
venereal  diseases,  of  which  the  details  are  given  in  my  treatise  on  the  Hell  of 
War.  The  accounts  of  the  Surgeon-General  of  the  United  States  have  been 
demanded  so  that  the  people  of  this  country  may  learn  what  the  hell  of  war 
really  is  even  when  no  shot  or  shell  is  fired. 

I  claim  no  more  foresight  than  any  other  man  of  common  sense,  but  when 
the  danger  of  war  was  disclosed  I  sent  for  these  documents  and  I  have  secured 
the  printing  of  these  details  in  a  Senate  document  which  Senator  Lodge  tried  to 
stop  on  the  ground  of  saving  the  expense  of  printing  treatises  by  private  persons. 
He  was  obliged  to  withdraw  his  objection  when  Senator  Jones,  of  Arkansas, 
insisted  on  the  record  being  made.  You  may  contrast,  if  you  please,  the  elements 
of  politics  and  patriotism  in  the  acts  and  speeches  of  the  senior  and  the  junior 
Senators  of  Massachusetts.    Choose  then  who  honors  and  who  dishonors  the  State. 

Again  the  President  says  :  "  We  cannot  anticipate  or  avoid  the  consequences, 
but  we  must  meet  them."  No,  President  McKinley  was  neither  capable  of  fore- 
seeing or  avoiding  the  consequences  of  his  act.  He  now  declares  himself  to  be 
incapable  of  meeting  the  consequences,  and  attempts  to  throw  the  whole  burden 
upon  the  Congress  of  the  United  States. 


8  CRIMINAL    AGGRESSION:     BY     WHOM    COMMUTED  ? 


Again  he  says  :  "  There  was  but  one  alternative,  and  that  was  either  Spain 
or  the  United  States  in  the  Philippines/'  Was  there  no  other  alternative?  If 
there  was  no  other  why  did  Admiral  Dewey  bring  Aguinaldo  back  to  take  the 
lead  of  the  Filipinos  ?  Why  did  he  accept  the  aid  of  the  organized  forces  which 
have  now  invested  our  army  in  Manila  as  it  invested  it  when  we  were  engaged  in 
removing  the  oppressive  forces  of  Spain  from  there  ?  Did  not  Admiral  Dewey 
foresee  the  need  of  a  land  force  to  cooperate  with  the  navy  in  removing  the 
oppression  of  Spain  when  he  promoted  the  return  of  Aguinaldo  to  Manila  to 
command  that  force?  Who  is  yet  entitled  to  pass  judgment  upon  Aguinaldo? 
Our  own  officials  have  promoted  his  movements  and  perhaps  unwisely  made 
promises  of  support.  What  if  he  should  prove  to  be  a  born  leader  of  men  ? 
Who  will  then  be  shamed?  When  shall  we  know  the  truth  in  this  matter? 
When  will  the  evidence  of  United  States  Consul-General  Pratt,  of  Singapore,  and 
of  Consul  Wildman  on  this  matter  belaid  before  Congress?  We  have  as  yet  but 
indirect  evidence  of  their  interviews  with  Aguinaldo.  What  purports  to  be  an 
authentic  statement  published  by  a  friend  and  correspondent  of  Consul-General 
Pratt  in  Birmingham,  Ala.,  is  as  follows: 

"Alluding  to  the  first  conference,  the  writer  says:  'There  were  present 
General  Emilio  Aguinaldo  y  Femi ;  E.  Spencer  Pratt,  Consul-General  of  the  United 
States ;  Howard  H.  Bray ;  J.  Leyba,  Aguinaldo's  private  secretary ;  Colonel 
Mareelo  del  Pilar;  and  M.  Santos.1 

"During  the  conference,  at  which  Bray  acted  as  interpreter,  Aguinaldo 
explained  to  Consul-General  Pratt  incidents  and  objects  of  the  late  rebellion,  and 
described  the  then  disturbed  state  of  the  country.  He  then  proceeded  to  detail 
the  nature  of  the  cooperation  he  would  give,  in  which  he,  in  the  event  of  the 
American  forces  from  the  squadron  landing  and  taking  possession  of  Manila, 
would  guarantee  to  maintain  order  and  discipline  among  the  native  troops  and 
inhabitants  in  the  same  humane  way  in  which  he  had  hitherto  conducted  war,  and 
prevent  them  from  committing  outrages  on  defenceless  Spaniards  beyond  the 
inevitable  in  fair  and  honorable  war. 

"  He  further  declared  his  ability  to  establish  a  proper  and  responsible  gov- 
ernment on  liberal  principles,  and  would  be  willing  to  accept  the  same  terms 
for  the  country  as  the  United  States  intended  giving  Cuba.  The  Consul-General 
of  the  United  States,  coinciding  with  the  general  views  expressed  during  the  dis- 
cussion, placed  himself  at  once  in  telegraphic  communication  with  Admiral 
Dewey  at  Hong  Kong.  As  a  result,  another  private  interview  was  arranged  at 
the  American  consular  residence,  between  Aguinaldo,  Pratt,  Bray,  and  Leyba. 
As  a  sequel  to  this  interview,  and  in  response  to  the  urgent  request  of  Admiral 
Dewey,  Aguinaldo  left  Singapore  at  once  for  Hong  Kong,  and  accompanied 
Dewey  with  the  ileet  to  Manila. 

"  General  Aguinaldo's  policy,  as  clearly  stated  in  his  interviews  at  Singa- 
pore, embraced  the  independence  of  the  Philippines.  American  protection 
would  be  desirable  temporaril}',  on  the  same  lines  as  that  which  might  there- 
after be  instituted  in  Cuba.  The  ports  of  the  Philippines  would  be  free  to  the 
trade  of  the  world,  safeguards  being  enacted  against  an  influx  of  Chinese  aliens 
who  would  compete  with  the  industrious  population  of  the  country.  The  entire 
freedom  of  the  press  would  be  established,  as  well  as  of  thought  and  public  meet- 
ings. There  would  be  general  religious  toleration,  and  steps  would  be  taken  for 
the  expulsion  of  the  religious  fraternities  who  had  a  strong  hand  on  every  branch 
of  the  civil  administration 

"  These  promises  were  made,  as  stated,  in  the  interviews  with  Consul-General 
Pratt  at  Singapore,  telegraphed  to  Dewey  at  Hong  Kong  only  a  few  days  before 


CRIMIX.  17.     .1  GGL'ESSIOX  :     BY     II  'HOM    <  OMMITTED  1  !  I 

the  fleet  sailed,  and  Aguinaldo  accompanied  the  fleet  at  Dewey's  urgent  request 
on  receipt  of  Pratt's  telegrams.  Subsequent  events  proved  that  Aguinaldo  kept 
all  of  his  promises,  but  the  interesting  feature  of  this  incident  is  that  no  official 
announcements  or  publications  of  the  facts  have  emanated  from  the  Government 
at  Washington." 

The  President  says:  "The  second  alternative  was  that  they  be  left  to  the 
anarchy  and  chaos  of  no  protectorate  at  all."  The  common  sense  of  this  country 
will  reject  that  statement.  There  existed  a  protectorate  capable  of  protecting 
persons  and  property.  Under  that  protectorate  the  Philippine  forces  held  Iloilo, 
where  the}-  committed  no  looting,  no  interference  with  persons  or  property,  no 
meddling  with  the  foreigners.  There  they  maintained  their  rights  until  we  attacked 
them,  and  then  they  retired. 

By  whom  was  this  attack  authorized?  What  induced  the  Filipinos  to  re- 
sist the  forces  of  the  United  States  ?  Who  began  that  light  ?  As  yet  we  have  no 
evidence.  Who  is  responsible?  Aguinaldo  says  :  "The  President  of  the  United 
States  is  responsible,'1  and  I  think  he  goes  far  to  prove  it.  What  order  did  the 
President  of  the  United  States  utter  December  27  before  the  treaty  had  been  rati- 
fied, either  by  the  United  States  or  Spain,  without  authority  of  law,  usurping  power 
not  then  vested  in  him  ?  He  ordered  General  Otis  to  take  possession  of  the  Philip- 
pine islands.  He  says  :  "  The  actual  occupation  and  administration  of  the  entire 
group  of  the  Philippine  islands  becomes  immediately  necessary  and  a  military  gov- 
ernment heretofore  maintained  in  the  United  States,  in  the  city,  harbor,  and  bay 
of  Manila  and  the  whole  of  the  ceded  territory."  Mark  the  words,  "  the  whole  of 
the  ceded  territory"  from  which  Spain  had  already  been  expelled  by  the  Fili- 
pinos themselves,  with  the  exception  of  ports  under  the  control  of  the  Spanish 
navy.  The  advocates  of  expansion  and  of  continuous  possession  assume  that 
there  are  no  Filipinos  who  have  a  sense  of  their  own  rights  or  any  power  to 
maintain  them.  What  says  your  coadjutor,  Rev.  Clay  MacCauley,  on  this  matter? 
Is  he  a  competent  witness?  Visiting  these  islands  with  a  feeling  bred  of  the 
missionary  spirit  that  it  was  our  duty  to  retain  them,  he  found  evidence  on  the 
spot  which  wholly  change  his  opinion.     He  says : 

"  It  should  be  known,  to  begin  with,  that  the  people  of  the  Philijopines  are 
opposed  to  such  annexation.  By  the  Philippine  '  people'  I  do  notmean  the  savage 
tribes  of  the  hills  of  Luzon  and  of  the  remote  islands.  These  tribes  have  always 
ignored  or  antagonized  every  other  than  their  own  inherited  governments.  They 
would,  for  an  indefinite  time,  be  as  hostile  to  the  rule  of  the  United  States  as  the 
North  American  Indians  ever  were.  Constantly  recurring  conflicts  with  them 
would  await  us  in  our  government  of  the  islands,  even  were  all  other  sources  of 
opposition  removed.  The  Philippine  '  people  '  are  the  hundreds  of  thousands  of 
Christianized  natives  and  persons  of  half  or  mixed  caste  who  now  occupy  numerous 
cities,  towns,  and  plantations  ;  who  possess  accumulated  wealth  ;  conduct  agricult- 
ure, own  factories,  and  direct  foreign  commerce  ;  and  who  have  attained  to  a  consid- 
erable degree  of  education  and  culture  in  the  arts  and  in  the  learned  professions. 
These  people  have  developed  in  large  measure  a  political  consciousness  and 
ambition,  and  are  now  represented  in  the  '  Philippine  Republic.'  The  proposed 
assumption  of  political  sovereignty  over  them  by  the  United  States  has  recently 
become  magnified  to  them  as  their  greatest  danger.  By  common  impulse  they 
are  throughout  united  to  oppose  it,  and  unless  their  fear  can  be  quieted,  or  their 
allegiance  to  American  sovereignty  secured  by  persuasion  or  reward,  they  will 
carry  their  opposition  into  open  warfare.  Above  all,  they  demand  that  the 
Government  that  directs  their  affairs  shall  have  place  through  their  own  consent. 
They  resent  the  agreements  of  Spain  and  the  United  States,  or  the  acts  of  the 


10  CRIMINAL    AGGRESSION :     BY     WHOM    COMMITTED 


American  Congress,  that  dispose  of  them  politically  like  so  many  pieces  of  chat- 
tel property.  They  claim  to  have  now  an  established  and  systematized  govern- 
ment, self  chosen  ;  and  evidently  they  have  a  large  and  well-armed  arm}-  gathered 
to  defend  what  they  claim  to  be  their  freedom  and  independence.  I  have  been 
informed  on  good  authority  that  more  than  eighty  thousand  rifles  have  been  im- 
ported by  the  Philippine  insurgents  during  the  past  few  months.  Whatever 
might  be  done  to  win  the  Filipinos  from  allegiance  to  their  •  republic,1  certain 
it  is  that  an  arbitrary  act  of  annexation  now  would  only  arouse  them  to  a  struggle 
for  freedom  and  national  autonom}-."1 

Edifying  spectacle  it  would  be,  that  of  this  new  republic  of  the  far  East 
striving  to  the  death  to  defend  itself  from  a  greed  of  conquest  satiating  itself 
upon  it  in  the  old  republic  of  the  West,  "the  land  of  the  free  and  the  home  of 
the  brave/' 

"  And  next,  the  people  of  the  United  States  should  know  that  their  fellow-citi- 
zens now  in  the  Philippines,  the  soldiers  and  sailors  of  the  American  army  and 
navy  there,  are  generally  opposed  to  or  indifferent  to  the  proposed  annexation. 
With  the  most  intelligent  and  thoughtful  among  them,  antagonism  is  supported 
by  judgment  drawn  from  many  considerations,  some  of  which  are  here  sum- 
marized. Surely  it  is  worth  the  attention  of  the  people  at  home  who  are 
willing  to  commit  our  Government  to  an  attempt  at  the  annexation  of  the 
Philippine  islands,  the  fact  that  most  of  their  fellow-citizens  who  have  for  months 
been  dwellers  in  the  islands,  in  contact  with  the  native  people  there,  and  who 
have  learned  much  of  the  various  conditions  there,  —  physical,  social,  and  commer- 
cial, —  should  have  grown  increasingly  opposed  to  the  proposition  to  incorporate 
the  Philippine  people  into  the  American  body  politic.'" 

Aguinaldo  has  uttered  a  protest.  He  gives  the  reason  why  the  confidence  of 
the  Filipinos  Avas  destroyed  by  this  unwarranted  and  unlawful  order  of  the 
President  of  the  United  States  before  the  treaty  had  been  accepted,  to  take  pos- 
session and  administer  the  whole  islands.  Now,  let  any  American  put  himself  in 
the  place  of  an  intelligent  citizen  of  the  Island  of  Luzon,  what  would  be  his  con- 
ception of  such  an  assumption  of  power  over  him  backed  by  military  force  P 
Would  he  not  protest  ?     Witness  the  simple  dignity  of  Aguinaldo's  words : 

"  I  solemnly  protest  in  the  name  of  God,  the  root  and  fountain  of  all  justice 
and  of  all  right,  and  who  has  given  to  me  the  power  to  direct  my  dear  brothers 
in  the  difficult  work  of  regeneration,  against  this  intrusion  of  the  Government  of 
the  United  States  in  the  sovereignty  of  the  islands.  Equally  I  protest  in  the  name 
of  the  Philippine  people  against  this  intrusion,  because  when  they  gave  me  their 
vote  of  confidence,  electing  me,  though  unworthy,  as  President  of  the  nation, 
when  they  did  this  they  imposed  on  me  the  duty  to  sustain  to  death  their  liberty 
and  independence." 

That  is  the  answer  of  the  man  whom  Admiral  Dewey  found  fit  to  place  where 
he  could  assume  the  responsibility  with  which  he  is  charged,  and  on  whichever 
side  the  first  shot  was  fired  in  the  slaughter  of  these  people  the  sole  responsibility 
for  this  act  of  criminal  aggression  rests  upon  the  President  of  the  United  States. 

Yet  the  President  says:  "The  treaty  gave  them  to  the  United  States. 
Could  we  have  required  less  and  done  our  duty  ?  Could  we,  after  freeing  the 
Filipinos  from  the  dominion  of  Spain,  have  left  them  without  Government  and 
without  power  to  protect  life  and  property,  or  to  perform  the  international  obliga- 
tions essential  to  an  indejiendent  State?  "  This  question  rests  on  false  premises. 
They  had  a  government.  They  had  power  to  protect  property.  They  have  the 
power  to  enter  into  international  relations,  and  they  may  yet  be  recognized  and 
rightly  recognized  by  other  powers. 


CRIMINAL    AGGRESSION:    BY    WHOM    COMMITTED.'  11 


The  President  says  in  speaking  of  other  nations:  "  Did  we  ask  their  consent 
to  liberate  them  from  Spanish  sovereignty  or  to  enter  Manila  bay  and  destroy  the 
Spanish  sea  power  there  ?  We  did  not  ask  these  ;  we  were  obeying  a  higher  moral 
obligation  which  rested  on  ns,  and  which  did  not  require  anybody's  consent.  We 
were  doing  our  duty  by  them  with  the  consent  of  our  own  consciences  and  with  the 
approval  of  civilization.''  Are  we  now  doing  our  duty  by  them  by  slaughtering 
them  by  the  thousands,  and  by  burning  and  shelling  their  villages  without  givinc 
the  women  and  children  a  chance  to  escape?  What  sort  of  a  conscience  warrants 
such  acts  —  what  civilized  man  approves? 

But  witness  the  inconsistency  in  this  speech.  The  President  says  :  "  Even- 
present  obligation  has  been  met  and  fulfilled  in  the  expulsion  of  Spanish  sov- 
ereignty from  their  islands."'  True,  and  nearly  the  only  simple  and  plain  state- 
ment of  a  fact  to  be  found  in  the  whole  speech.  Then  why  not  withdraw  ? 
"  During  the  progress  of  the  war  with  Spain  we  could  not  ask  their  views.  Nor 
can  we  now  ask  their  consent."  Why  not?  Are  not  the  people  of  the  Island  of 
Luzon  entitled  to  be  consulted  ?  Are  they  to  be  governed  by  military  force  under 
an  arbitrary  order  from  a  foreign  ruler  ?  They  have  an  established  form  of  gov- 
ernment. They  have  presented  state  papers  of  unequalled  excellence  and  force 
which  have  been  refused  by  the  State  Department,  and  rejected  in  terms  of  con- 
tempt by  the  military  officers  of  the  United  States. 

The  President  says  in  excuse  or  palliation  of  this  offence:  "It  is  not  a 
good  time  for  the  liberator  to  submit  important  questions  concerning  liberty  and 
government  to  the  liberated  while  they  are  engaged  in  shooting  down  their  res- 
cuers." Surely  it  may  not  be  a  good  time  to  deal  with  them  when  they  are  being 
liberated  by  death  and  when  our  forces  are  rescuing  them  with  repeating  rifles, 
but  why  were  these  important  questions  not  submitted  to  them  before  the  Pres- 
ident on  his  own  authority  asserted  an  unlawful  dominion  over  them  ? 

The  President  having  brought  this  shame  upon  us ;  having  said  that  the 
flag  should  not  come  down;  having  asserted  possession  before  the  cession  from 
Spain  had  been  accepted  by  the  Senate  and  before  he  had  any  rightful  authority, 
thus  inciting  the  Filipinos  to  resistance,  now  declares:  "I  do  not  intend  to 
obtrude  upon  the  duties  of  Congress  or  seek  to  anticipate  or  forestall  its  action. 
I  only  say  that  the  treaty  of  peace,  honorably  secured,  having  been  ratified  by 
the  United  States,  and,  as  we  confidently  expect,  shortly  to  be  ratified  in  Spain, 
Congress  will  have  the  power,  and  I  am  sure  the  purpose,  to  do  what  in  good 
morals  is  right  and  just  and  humane  for  these  peoples  in  distant  seas."  Having 
found  himself  incapable  of  meeting  the  duties  and  responsibilities  of  his  posi- 
tion, he  is  now  shifting  upon  Congress  the  dreadful  penalties  of  his  own  inca- 
pacity. Again:  "Until  the  treaty  Avas  ratified  or  rejected  the  Executive 
Department  of  this  Government  could  only  preserve  the  peace  and  protect  life 
and  property.  That  treaty  now  commits  the  free  and  enfranchised  Filipinos 
to  the  guiding  hand  and  the  liberalizing  influences,  the  generous  sj-mpathies,  the 
uplifting  education,  not  of  their  American  masters,  but  of  their  American 
emancipators." 

Why  did  he  assert  dominion  before  the  treaty  was  ratified  ?  Why  oppress  in 
the  name  of  enfranchisement  ? 

Enfranchised,  indeed,  under  the  guiding  hand  and  liberalizing  influences  of 
repeating  rifles,  the  uplifting  education  of  dynamite  guns,  turned  against  them 
by  armed  forces  ordered  to  govern  them  without  their  consent. 

Again  the  President  says :  "  I  know  no  one  at  this  hour  who  is  wise  enough 
or  sufficiently  informed  to  determine  what  form  of  government  will  best  subserve 
their  interests  and  our  interests,  their  and  our  well-being,'1  thus  admitting  inca- 
pacity. 


12  CRIMINAL     AGGBESSION :     7>T     WHOM    COMMITTED.' 

lie  goes  on  to  declare:  •'  Until  Congress  shall  direct  otherwise  it  will  be  the 
duty  of  the  Executive  t<>  possess  and  hold  the  Philippines"  (we  hold  ten  miles 
square,  or  less,  from  a  part  of  which  we  have  retreated),  "  giving  to  the  people 
thereof  peace  and  order,  and  beneficent  government,  affording  them  every 
opportunity  to  prosecute  their  lawful  pursuits,  encouraging  them  in  thrift  and 
industry,  making  them  feel  and  know  that  we  are  their  friends,  not  their  enemies, 
that  their  good  is  our  aim,  that  their  welfare  is  our  welfare,  but  that  neither  their 
aspirations  nor  ours  ran  lie  realized  until  our  authority  is  acknowledged  and 
unquestioned." 

If  it  were  not  for  the  atrocities  which  have  been  committed  in  the  name  of 
duty,  peace,  and  order,  there  would  be  something  grotesque  in  the  absurdity  of 
such  platitudes  spoken  by  the  President  before  the  reverberation  of  the  guns  dis- 
charged in  the  slaughter  of  the  Filipinos  have  ceased  to  echo  around  the  world  to 
the  dishonor  of  this  country. 

But  still  Ave  will  welcome  the  President  to  the  ranks  of  the  Anti-Imperialist 
League  if  we  can  trust  his  words:  "  No  imperial  designs  lurk  in  the  American 
mind.  They  are  alien  to  American  sentiment,  thought,  and  purpose.  Our 
priceless  principles  undergo  no  change  under  a  tropical  sun.  They  go  with 
the  Hag.  If  in  the  years  of  the  future  they  are  established  in  government  under 
law  and  liberty,  who  will  regret  our  perils  and  sacrifices  ?  "  But  if  these  people 
ai*e  now  in  the  present  established  in  law  and  capable  of  maintaining  liberty,  as 
they  have  proved  themselves  to  be,  who  will  not  regret  the  slaughter  which  we 
have  inflicted  upon  them  ?  Will  not  the  mothers  of  the  land  regret  the  loss  of 
their  sons,  now  on  the  wa}T  to  or  now  in  Manila,  only  beginning  to  be  exposed  to 
worse  dangers  than  the  resistance  of  the  Filipinos  under  the  ghastly  conditions 
of  the  worst  of  tropical  climates  in  the  rainy  season  P  In  an  aggressive  cam- 
paign away  from  the  sea  Ave  ma}'  fear  that  of  the  2.5,000  men  who  have  been 
despatched  to  Manila,  if  kept  there  three  or  four  months  longer,  not  one-half  will 
ever  see  their  native  land  again ;  we  may  fear  that  nearly  all  of  the  other  half 
who  may  return  will  come  back  impaired  in  health  and  strength.  The  evidence 
of  these  dangers  is  conclusive.  The  facts  disclosed  by  the  records  of  the  British, 
French,  and  Dutch  armies  almost  prove  that  such  Avill  be  the  fate  that  Ave  are 
bringing  upon  the  children  of  Americans.  I  know  no  men  Avhose  names  Avill 
go  doAvn  among  the  mothers  of  the  land,  even  in  the  near  future,  subject  to 
greater  execration  than  the  names  of  the  men  avIio  have  brought  this  act  of  crim- 
inal aggression  upon  the  nation. 

Professor  Worcester  states  the  only  conditions  under  which  Avhite  men  may 
be  able  to  retain  their  health  and  strength  in  the  Philippine  islands  in  the  follow- 
ing terms:  "  Briefly  stated  the  facts  are  as  follows:  If  one  is  permanently  situ- 
ated in  a  good  locality  Avhere  he  can  secure  suitable  food  and  good  drinking 
Avater ;  if  he  is  scrupulously  careful  as  to  his  diet,  avoids  excesses  of  all  kinds, 
keeps  out  of  the  sun  in  the  middle  of  the  day,  and  refrains  from  severe  and 
long  continued  physical  exertion,  he  is  likely  to  remain  Avell,  always  supposing 
that  he  is  fortunate  enough  to  escape  malarial  infection." 

If  the  regular  army  of  the  United  States  is  stationed  in  the  Philippine 
islands  or  in  Cuba,  and  kept  there  six  months,  it  is  practically  certain  that  after 
that  term  has  elapsed  there  will  be  no  regular  army  of  the  United  States  in  exist- 
ence capable  of  any  effectual  service  even  on  the  part  of  the  survivors.  When 
the  facts  become  knoAvn  voluntary  enlistments  will  cease,  and  the  act  of  criminal 
aggression  can  only  be  continued  by  a  forced  enlistment  under  a  draft. 

Let  there  be  no  misapprehension  in  this  matter.  We  can  extend  our  admira- 
tion to  our  army  and  navy;  to  the  privates  and  most  of  the  officers  of  our 
army  and  to  the  officers  of  the  navy  as  well  as  the  privates.     War  has  not  ceased 


CRIMINAL    AGGRESSION:    BY     WHOM    COMMITTED?  13 


among  men  and  how  soon  it  will  cease  none  can  tell.  Even  President  Cleveland 
thought  it  might  become  necessary  to  make  forceful  intervention  in  the  Island 
of  Cuba.  When  the  'war  was  prematurely  entered  upon  it  found  our  navy 
governed  by  the  civil-service  rules,  thoroughly  well  organized,  the  right  men 
in  the  right  places  and  no  power  or  influence  of  any  Representative  or  Senator 
capable  of  moving  the  authorities  of  the  navy,  or  of  putting  men  in  their  places 
unqualified  for  the  positions. 

At  the  Navy  Department  there  were  no  Senators  or  Representatives  in  the 
lobby,  no  seekers  for  place  and  position  around  the  doors.  Everything  was  done 
with  effective  energy,  and  the  work  of  the  navy  bears  witness  to  the  civil-service 
rules  by  which  it  has  been  governed.  But  when  we  give  regard  to  the  War  De- 
partment, there  the  lobbies  were  filled  ;  there  political  influence  was  paramount. 
There  men  who  were  wanted  to  take  important  places  in  the  Commissary  De- 
partment, fully  qualified,  were  rejected,  and  incapable  persons  put  in  at  the 
instance  of  politicians.  And  what  did  we  get?  We  brought  together  an  army 
under  conditions  which  rendered  it  almost  incapable  of  effective  service.  One  of 
the  members  of  the  Commission  on  the  conduct  of  the  war  said  to  me  that  the 
conditions  at  Tampa  were  almost  those  of  a  mob  without  head  or  leader.  In 
some  Avay  the  line  officers  got  the  troops  over  the  sea.  There  the}'  blundered  into 
a  direct  attack  upon  Santiago,  where  the  bravery  of  the  troops  and  the  incapacity 
of  the  enemy  saved  them  from  a  great  disaster.  Men  who  knew  the  conditions 
allege  that  had  the  officers  in  command  been  willing  to  wait  for  the  cooperation 
of  the  navy  there  was  an  easy  place  to  land  a  few  miles  away,  free  of  fortifica- 
tion, from  which  a  railway  leads,  by  which  all  our  troops  could  have  moved  to 
the  rear  of  the  Santiago  forts  where,  under  the  protection  of  the  navy,  the  defences 
could  have  been  turned,  and  a  large  part  of  the  risk  might  have  been  avoided. 

Although  giving  credit  to  the  Navy  Department  and  its  chief,  when  I  read 
the  following  paragraph  closing  the  speech  of  the  Secretary  in  support  of  the 
action  of  his  chief:  "Is  not  that  the  statesmanship  of  the  great  Master  who 
limited  not  His  mission  or  that  of  His  disciples  to  His  own  chosen  people,  but 
proclaimed  that  His  gospel  should  be  preached  in  all  the  world  unto  all  nations, 
that  greatest  Statesman  of  all  time,  Jesus  Christ,"  it  seemed  to  me  blasphemy 
to  cite  the  authority  of  Jesus  Christ  in  justification  of  the  slaughter  of  the  Fili- 
pinos. I  can  conceive  of  nothing  more  sacrilegious  than  that  citation.  When 
I  was  speaking  the  other  night  to  the  chiefs  of  the  labor  organizations  who  are 
moved  most  deeply  in  this  matter  I  said,  If  that  is  Christianity  you  may  call  me 
Infidel  or  call  me  Pagan,  but  it  is  not;  it  is  servile  adulation  in  profane  terms. 

The  advocates  of  aggressive  expansion  tell  us  that  we  have  no  alternative, 
but  when  our  alternative  is  presented  he  who  presents  it  is  called  a  visionary. 
There  is  an  alternative  and  everything  is  propitious  for  its  adoption.  The  effort 
has  been  made  by  the  jingoes  to  get  up  public  demand  for  maintaining  possession 
or  annexing  these  islands  by  alleging  danger  of  seizure  by  Germany  or  France. 
They  do  not  dare  to  impute  such  purpose  to  Great  Britain.  Any  such  intention 
has  been  repudiated  by  the  Ministry  of  Germany.  It  is  denied  by  our  ambassa- 
dor, Andrew  D.  White,  and  it  is  a  false  imputation  made  for  an  evil  purpose. 
France  is  straggling  to  surmount  the  cost  of  lives  and  money  in  the  tropical 
colonies  now  held,  and  wants  no  more. 

What,  then,  are  the  facts  about  the  Philippine  islands.  No  one  wants  them. 
No  one  wants  to  assume  the  expense,  danger,  and  cost  of  subduing  and  governing 
them.  But  no  one  nation  wants  the  other  to  make  a  base  of  offence  against  any 
other  nation.  Then  why  not  neutralize  them  ?  We  can  lend  the  Filipinos  men 
like  Sir  Robert  Hart  of  England,  or  my  former  townsman,  E.  B.  Drew,  who  was 
formerly  a  high-school  teacher  in  Brookline.     These  two  men  are  now  adminis- 


14  CHIMIN AL    AGGRESSION:    BY     WHOM    COMMITTED 


tering  the  customs  of  China.  Lord  Cromer  administers  the  affairs  of  Egypt  under 
the  Khedive.  The  Philippines  may  be  neutralized  as  Belgium  is  neutralized  ;  as 
Switzerland  is  neutralized ;  as  the  Congo  Free  State  is  neutralized.  Is  not  every- 
thing propitious?  President  McKinley  has  the  opportunity  to  make  himself  a 
record  in  history  as  the  great  man  of'  the  century  could  he  comprehend  his  true 
mission  and  take  advantage  of  the  existing  conditions.  All  nations  to  have  their 
coaling  stations ;  all  nations  to  land  their  cables ;  all  to  have  equal  rights  and 
no  hostile  shots  to  be  fired  upon  the  land,  and  no  contest  upon  the  waters  thereof. 
We  can  make  the  Philippine  islands  the  sanctuary  of  commerce;  we  can  aid 
the  inhabitants  to  bring  order  out  of  chaos  ;  we  can  help  them  work  out  their  own 
national  salvation  :  and  joined  with  the  Czar  we  can  take  the  Jirst  measures  for 
abating  the  hell  of  war  upon  the  earth. 

•'  Can  these  tilings  come  to  pass  ? 
Nay,  if  it  be,  alas,  a  vision  ! 
Still  let  ns  sleep  and  dream  it  true  ; 
Or,  sane  and  broad  awake, 
For  Us  great  sound  and  sake 
Take  it  and  make  it  earth's, 
And  peace  ensue." 

I  have  remarked  that  whenever  right-minded  men  make  an  effort  to  establish 
peace  upon  earth  and  good-will  among  nations  those  who  are  imbued  with  the 
military  spirit  or  with  the  survival  of  the  brute  element  in  man  cry,  Visionary  ! 
These  are  the  men  who  to-day,  on  this  twenty-second  of  February,  the  birthday  of 
Washington,  are  trying  to  put  him  in  contempt  by  casting  ridicule  on  his  farewell 
address  as  having  no  relation  to  present  times.  Was  he  not  a  soldier?  Did  he 
not  tight  to  redeem  his  countrymen  from  oppression,  and  did  he  not  show  when 
the  conflict  was  ended  that  in  him  there  was  no  survival  of  the  brute  element, 
which  actuates  many  of  the  advocates  of  expansion  ?  Did  he  not  declare  and 
enforce  the  principles  of  peace?  It  is  not  only  expansion,  but  militarism  that  is 
upon  us,  but  that  evil  once  recognized  has  already  been  suppressed.  The  rising 
tide  of  popular  opinion  among  workingmen,  among  farmers,  among  clergymen, 
and  among  all  thoughtful  men  who  can  rightfully  claim  to  be  good  citizens,  will 
resist  criminal  aggression  and  will  yet  compel  the  Congress  and  the  Executive 
of  the  nation  to  remedy  the  wrongs  which  have  been  inflicted  upon  these  people. 
Then  will  be  found  the  easy  way  to  do  right ;  then  the  present  Executive  may 
open  that  way  by  neutralizing  the  Philippine  islands  and  making  them  the 
sanctuary  of  commerce.  The  opponents  of  criminal  aggression  will  then  join 
in  saving  the  President  from  the  execration  which  may  rest  upon  him  and  his 
supporters  when  the  death  rate  in  our  array  in  the  tropics  begins  to  be  recorded, 
unless  this  great  wrong  is  quickly  righted.  If  that  right  way  is  taken  then 
the  name  of  William  McKinley  may  yet  go  down  in  history,  when  all  the  evils 
of  the  present  have  been  buried  in  the  remote  past,  among  the  great  names  of 
the  benefactors  of  the  world. 

I  have  thus  endeavored  to  put  before  you,  members  of  the  clergy,  a  full  and 

frank  statement  of  our  present  conditions,   without  fear  or  favor.     When  the 

opponents   of  expansion  first  entered   upon  the  work  they  seemed  to   be  few. 

Many  now  active  and  earnestly  working  with  us  then  seemed   to  fear  that  the 

nation  had  been   so  far  committed  that  there  was   no  way  out.     All  that  has 

changed.     Congress  has  refused  to  warrant  a  permanently  large  standing  army, 

and  is  beginning  to  feel  the  influence  of  the  sober  second  thought  of  the  people 

giving  them   a   warning  no  longer   to  commit  criminal  aggression.      We  now 

call  upon  the  clergy  to  join  in  this  righteous  cause,  and  to  aid  us  with  their 

earnest  work. 

EDWARD   ATKINSON. 


CRIMINAL    AGGRESSION:     BY    WHOM    COMMITTED. 


APPENDIX. 


In  order  to  support  the  statements  submitted  in  the  foregoing  treatise  In- 
adequate proofs  I  have  endeavored  to  get  a  copy  of  Senate  Document  No.  62, 
containing  the  evidence  and  information  submitted  by  the  President  with  the 
treaty  of  peace,  — a  document  of  five  hundred  pages.  But  having  as  j'et  failed 
to  secure  a  copy,  I  may  rightly  make  citations  from  this  document  which  were 
submitted  by  Hon.  Henry  V.  Johnson  and  by  Hon.  Rice  A.  Pierce  in  their 
speeches  in  the  House  of  Representatives. 

In  support  of  the  right  of  the  Filipinos  to  self-government  Mr.  Johnson  said, 
"  Are  you  aware  that  Admiral  Dewey  made  use  of  this  language  in  his  communication 
to  the  Secretary  of  the  Navy  on  the  29th  of  last  August  ?  — 

"  The  population  of  Luzon  is  reported  to  be  something  over  3,000,000,  mostlv  natives.  These 
are  gentle,  docile,  and,  under  just  laws  and  with  the  benefits  of  popular  education,  would  soon 
make  good  citizens. 

"  In  a  telegram  sent  to  the  department  June  23  I  expressed  the  opinion  that  these  people 
are  far  superior  in  their  intelligence,  and  more  capable  of  self-government,  than  the  natives  of 
Cuba,  and  I  am  familiar  with  both  races.  Further  intercourse  with  them  has  confirmed  me  in 
this  opinion." 

Mr.  Johnson  — 

Has  it  escaped  your  notice  that  the  United  States  Consul-General  at  Hong  Kong, 
China,  made  use  of  the  following  language  in  his  communication  to  Mr.  Moore  of  the 
Department  of  State?  — 

I  consider  the  forty  or  fifty  Philippine  leaders,  with  whose  fortunes  I  have  been  verv 
closely  connected,  both  the  superiors  of  the  Malays  and  the  Cubans.  Aguinaldo,  Agoncilla, 
and  Sandico  are  all  men  who  would  all  be  leaders  in  their  separate  departments  in  any  countrv. 

In  conclusion  I  wish  to  put  myself  on  record  as  stating  that  the  insurgent  government  of 
the  Philippine  islands  cannot  be  dealt  with  as  though  they  were  North  American  Indians,  will- 
ing to  be  moved  from  one  reservation  to  another  at  the  whim  of  their  masters.  If  the  United 
States  decides  not  to  retain  the  Philippine  islands  its  10,000,000  people  will  demand  indepen- 
dence, and  the  attempt  of  any  foreign  nation  to  obtain  territory  or  coaling  stations  will  be 
resisted  with  the  same  spirit  with  which  they  fought  the  Spaniards. 

In  the  very  able  speech  of  Hon.  Rice  A.  Pierce  many  citations  are  given. 
He  said,  "  And  now  we  come  to  the  consideration  of  the  permanent  holding  of 
the  Philippine  islands,  to  do  which  General  Whittier,  in  his  testimony  before 
the  Paris  Commission,  said  : 

"  If  we  attempt  the  unwise  thing  of  ignoring  the  natives  an  arm}-  of  50,000  men  will  be  none 
too  small.  —  Senate  Doc,  No.  62,  part  1,  page  508." 

In  reply  to  the  charge  that  Seiior  Aguinaldo  had  been  bribed  by  Spain  to 
leave  the  islands  and  had  appropriated  the  money  Mr.  Pierce  refers  to  the  fact 
that  on  the  24th  day  of  May,  1898,  Mr.  Oscar  F.  Williams,  United  States  Consul 
to  Manila,  telegraphed  to  the  Secretary  of  State,  as  follows : 

To-day  I  executed  a  power  of  attorney  whereby  Aguinaldo  releases  to  his  attorneys,  in 
fact  $400,000  now  in  bank  in  Hong  Kong,  so  that  the  money  can  pay  for  3,000  stands  of  arms 
bought  there  and  expected  here  to-morrow. 

Again  Mr.  Pierce  recites  from  Document  62 : 

On  the  4th  of  July,  1898,  Gen.  Thomas  M.  Anderson,  commanding  the  United 
States  troops  at  Cavite,  addressed  a  letter  to  Senor  Don  Emilo  Aguinaldo,  commanding 
the  Philippine  forces  at  the  same  place,  in  which  he  said  (page  390)  : 

General  :  I  have  the  honor  to  inform  you  that  the  United  States  of  America,  whose  land 
forces  I  have  the  honor  to  command  in  this  vicinity,  being  at  war  with  the  kingdom  of  Spain, 
has  entire  sympathy  and  most  friendly  sentiments  for  the  native  people  of  the  Philippine  islands. 


16  CHIMIN AL    AGGBESSION:    BY     WHOM    COMMITTED/ 


For  these  reasons  I  desire  to  have  most  amicable  relations  with  you,  and  to  have  you  and 
your  people  cooperate  with  us  iu  the  military  operations  against  the  Spanish  forces. 

To  this  Aguinaldo  made  an  earnest  and  instant  response,  which  was  acknowledged 
by  General  Anderson  in  a  note  dated  July  6,  in  which,  after  informing  Aguinaldo  that 
large  reinforcements  were  expected  from  the  United  States,  for  whom  more  space 
would  be  required  for  camps  and  storehouses,  he  said  (page  391)  : 

For  this  I  would  like  to  have  your  Excellency's  advice  and  cooperation,  as  you  are  best 
acquainted  with  the  resources  of  this  country. 

He    added   that  they  did  not  intend  to  remain   inactive,   hut   to    move    promptly 

"  against  our  common  enemy." 

Referring  to  the  Spaniards'  fear  of  the  Filipinos,  General  Whittier  said  (page -191)  : 
I  think  the  Captain-General  was  much  frightened.     He  reported  in  great  trepidation  that 

the  insurgents  were  coming  into  the  city,  and   I  said   that  I    knew  that   that  was  impossible, 

because  such  precautions  had  been  taken  as  rendered  it  so. 

General  Whittier  said,  in  answer  to  a  question  put  by  Senator  Gray  (page  492)  : 
They  are  somewhat  undersized,  are  fairly  good  in  appearance,  are  brave,  will  stand  any 
amount  of  hunger  and  hardship,  and,  well  led,  would  be  very  good  soldiers. 

Speaking  of  their  services  in  "  driving  the  Spaniards  from  Cavite,  twenty  odd 
miles  into  the  defences  of  Manila,"  General  Whittier  said  (page  499)  : 

All  the  success  was  on  the  natives'  side,  and  the  Spaniards  surrendered  between  7,000 
and  8,000  men  well  armed,  plenty  of  ammunition,  and  in  good  physical  condition.  The  excuse 
of  the  latter  may  be  that  their  enemy  was  in  small  bands ;  but  they  never  captured  one  of  these, 
and  the  small  bands  drove  them  to  their  walls. 

The  most  conclusive  evidence,  however,  of  a  complete  understanding  of  the 
several  military  and  naval  officers  of  the  United  States  in  this  matter  is  to  be  found 
in  the  report  of  Consul  Wildman,  which  was  brought  into  the  debate  as  follows : 

Mr.  Piekce,  of  Tennessee  — 

Consul  AVildman  states,  and  the  records  show  it,  that  openly  in  the  Spanish  Cortes 
General  Rivera,  who  was  the  Spanish  Governor-General,  stated  that  of  the  money  that 
was  to  be  paid  only  $400,000  of  it,  and  that  in  Mexican  dollars,  was  paid,  when  they 
had  to  pay  over  $1,000,000;  that  he  did  not  propose  to  carry  out  what  was  stipulated 
at  the  time. 

In  1897  Aguinaldo,  Agoncillo,  and  other  leaders  of  the  Philippines  agreed  to  leave 
the  island,  and  that  certain  civil  reforms  were  to  be  entered  upon,  but  as  Rivera  says 
himself,  he  did  not  propose  to  carry  them  out,  and  he  did  not  propose  to  pay  any 
of  the  money ;  and  this  is  what  the  Consul  at  Hong  Kong  says,  and  I  will  read  what  he 
says,  as  I  do  not  wish  to  state  it  myself.     Here  is  what  Consul  Wildman  says  : 

Consulate  of  the  United  States, 

Hong  Kong,  July  18,  1898. 

There  has  been  a  systematic  attempt  to  blacken  the  name  of  Aguinaldo  and  his  cabinet  on 
account  of  the  questionable  terms  of  their  surrender  to  Spanish  forces  a  year  ago  this  month.  It  has 
been  said  that  they  sold  their  country  for  gold  ;  but  this  has  been  conclusively  disproved,  not  only 
by  their  own  statements,  but  by  the  speech  of  the  late  Governor-General  Rivera  in  the  Spanish 
Senate,  June  11,  1898.  He  said  that  Aguinaldo  undertook  to  submit  if  the  Spanish  government 
would  give  a  certain  sum  to  the  widows  and  orphans  of  the  insurgents.  He  then  admits  that 
only  a  tenth  part  of  this  sum  was  ever  given  to  Aguinaldo,  and  that  the  other  promises  made  he 
did  not  find  it  expedient  to  keep. 

I  was  in  Hong  Kong  September,  1897,  when  Aguinaldo  and  his  leaders  arrived  under  con- 
tract with  the  Spanish  Government.  They  waited  until  the  first  of  November  for  the  payment 
of  the  promised  money  and  the  fulfilment  of  the  promised  reforms.  Only  $400,000,  Mexican, 
was  ever  placed  to  their  credit  in  the  banks,  and  on  the  third  of  November  Mr.  F.  Agoncillo, 
late  minister  of  foreign  affairs  in  Agninaldo's  cabinet,  called  upon  me  and  made  a  proposal, 
which  I  transmitted  to  the  State  Department  in  my  despatch  No.  19,  dated  Nov.  3,  1897. 

In  reply  the  State  Department  instructed  me  "  to  courteously  decline  to  communicate  with 
the  department  further  regarding  the  alleged  mission."    I  obeyed  these  instructions  to  the  letter 


CRIMINAL     AGGRESSION:    BY     WHOM    COMMITTED/  17 

until  the  breaking  out  of  the  war,  when,  after  consultation  with  Admiral  Dewey,  I  received  a 
delegation  from  the  insurgent  junta,  and  they  bound  themselves  to  obey  all  laws  of  civilized 
warfare,  and  to  place  themselves  absolutely  under  the  orders  of  Admiral  Dewey  if  they  were 
permitted  to  return  to  Manila.  At  this  time  their  president,  Aguinaldo,  was  in  Singapore 
negotiating,  through  Consul-General  Pratt,  with  Admiral  Dewey  for  his  return. 

On  April  27,  in  company  with  Consul  O.  F.  Williams,  we  received  another  delegation,  com- 
posed of  Senor  Sandico,  Jose  Maria  Basa,  Tomas  Mascardo,  Lorenzo  L.  Zialcita,  Andres  E. 
Garchitorena,  Manuel  Malvar,  Mariano  Llanza,  Salvatore  Estrella.  We  agreed,  on  behalf  of 
Dewey,  to  allow  two  of  their  number  to  accompany  the  fleet  to  Manila.  Consequently,  on  the 
same  day,  I  took  in  the  tug  "  Fame  "Alizandrino  and  Garchitorena,  accompanied  by  Mr.  Sandico, 
to  the  "  Olympia,"  in  Mir's  Bay.  On  May  2  Aguinaldo  arrived  in  Hong  Kong  and  immediately 
called  on  me. 

It  was  May  16th  before  I  could  obtain  permission  from  Admiral  Dewey  to  allow  Aguinaldo 
to  go  by  the  United  States  ship  "  McCulloch,"  and  I  put  him  aboard  in  the  night  so  as  to  save 
any  complications  with  the  local  government.  Immediately  on  the  arrival  of  Aguinaldo  at 
Cavite  he  issued  a  proclamation,  which  I  had  outlined  for  him  before  he  left,  forbidding  pillage, 
and  making  it  a  criminal  offence  to  maltreat  neutrals.  He,  of  course,  organized  a  government 
of  which  he  was  dictator,  an  absolutely  necessary  step  if  he  hoped  to  maintain  control  over  the 
natives,  and  from  that  date  until  the  present  time  he  ha^  been  uninterruptedly  successful  in  the 
field,  and  dignified  and  just  at  the  head  of  his  government. 

In  conclusion,  I  wish  to  put  myself  on  record  as  stating  that  the  insurgent  government  of 
the  Philippine  islands  cannot  be  dealt  with  as  though  they  were  North  American  Indians,  willing 
to  be  moved  from  one  reservation  to  another  at  the  whim  of  their  masters.  If  the  United  States 
decides  not  to  retain  the  Philippine  islands  its  10,000,000  people  will  demand  independence,  and 
the  attempt  of  any  foreign  nation  to  obtain  territory  or  coaling  stations  will  be  resisted  with  the 
same  spirit  with  which  they  fought  the  Spaniards. 

I  have  the  honor,  etc. 

PiOUNSEVELLE    WlLDMAN, 

Consul-General. 

Mr.  Pierce  — 

And  that  money  Aguinaldo,  as  shown  by  Mr.  Williams,  Consul  of  the  United 
States,  has  turned  over  to  buy  arms.  He  executed  a  power  of  attorney  and  turned 
it  over  to  him,  that  he  might  pay  for  the  arms  that  had  been  purchased.  I  repeat 
here  that  the  arms  came  under  American  control,  and  were  turned  over  through  Amer- 
can  officials  to  Aguinaldo  to  arm  the  natives  in  their  fight  against  the  Spaniards,  to  aid 
the  Americans  in  the  capture  of  Manila.  (Applause.)  We  have  this  plain  letter.  It 
is  not  manufactured  by  me.  We  see  here  the  same  policy  pursued  by  gentlemen  on 
the  other  side  of  the  House  to  carry  out  the  policy  of  Mr.  McKinley. 

Finally,  in  support  of  the  right  of  the  Filipinos  Mr.  Pierce  quotes  Admiral 
Dewey  in  the  following  terms  : 

These  people,  the  Filipinos,  are  far  superior  in  their  intelligence  and  more  capable  of 
self-government  than  the  natives  of  Cuba,  and  I  am  familiar  with  both  races. 

Closing  as  follows : 

And  yet  we  propose  to  give  a  free  government  to  the  Island  of  Cuba,  to  the 
natives  of  Cuba;  and  George  Dewey,  a  man  soon  to  become  an  Admiral,  a  title  which 
he  richly  merits  and  deserves,  says  these  natives  of  the  Philippine  islands  are  superior 
to  the  natives  of  Cuba.  Congress  has  said  that  the  natives  of  Cuba  should  be  free. 
What  the  President  said  to  the  Filipinos  was  given  to  them  through  their  press. 

The  Filipinos  rendered  every  assistance  that  they  could  to  aid  the  United  States. 
They  drove  the  Spaniards  into  their  walled  city  of  Manila,  held  all  the  outer  lines  and 
fortifications,  cut  off  the  supplies,  cut  off  the  food  and  water,  and  rendered  assistance 
to  the  American  army  which  would  have  made  it  impossible  for  them  without  that  assist- 
ance to  have  taken  the  Spanish  army^  for  if  it  had  not  been  for  Aguinaldo's  army  the 
Spaniards  could  have  retreated  from  the  city  of  Manila  and  beyond  the  reach  of 
Dewey's  guns. 

These  citations  are  from  the  official  document  prepared  in  the  office  of  the 
Secretary  of  State  and  submitted  to  Congress  by  President  William  McKinley 


18  CR IM  IN  AL     A  G  CUES  SION  :     BY     117/  0  M    CO  MM  I TTED  ? 


with  the  treaty  of  peace.  It  is  apparent  that  the  several  military  and  naval 
officers  of  the  United  States  acted  upon  their  faith  on  the  declaration  of  the  Presi- 
dent when  he  announced  that  he  did  not  contemplate  "  forcible  annexation,*' which 
by  our  code  of  morality  he  declared  would  be  "criminal  aggression." 

It,  therefore,  appears  that  carefully  refraining  from  any  act  outside  their  law- 
ful functions,  Commodore  Dewey,  General  Anderson,  Consul-General  Smith 
of  Singapore,  and  Consul  Wildman  of  Hong  Kong,  secured  the  cooperation  of 
Aguinaldo,  promoted  his  return  in  a  government  vessel  to  .Manila,  supplied  him 
and  his  forces  with  arms  taken  from  the  Spaniards,  and  invited  his  cooperation 
in  the  common  undertaking  to  remove  the  oppressive  rule  of  Spain  from  the 
Philippine  islands  in  order  that  the  people  might  enjoy  liberty.  The  President 
of  the  United  States,  having  knowledge  of  all  these  facts,  then  turns  back  on  his 
declaration,  gives  orders  without  authority  of  law,  under  an  assumed  power,  to 
General  Otis  to  take  possession  and  administer  the  government  of  the  Philippine 
islands. 

This  bald  statement  of  the  facts  of  the  case  calls  for  no  words.  The  question 
before  the  country  now  is  how  to  remedy  this  wrong  and  how  to  remove  from 
the  Philippine  islands  the  oppression  which  has  been  substituted  for  that  of  Spain 
with  the  least  delay  and  the  least  humiliation. 

At  the  very  time  when  the  foregoing  text  was  being  put  in  type  comes  the 
first  information  yet  received  by  mail  of  which  the  public  has  any  knowledge,  in 
regard  to  the  condition  of  affairs  at  the  time  and  in  the  weeks  preceding  the 
slaughter  of  the  Filipinos  by  our  army,  from  a  competent  observer  who  was  on 
the  spot. 

Many  rumors  have  been  in  circulation,  based  on  private  letters  in  regard  to 
the  origin  of  that  attack,  but  in  the  following  letter  of  Rev.  Clay  MacCauley, 
whose  evidence  has  been  cited  in  the  body  of  tins  pamphlet,  we  begin  to  get  evi- 
dence from  an  independent  source  not  like  that  over  the  telegraph  line  under 
Government  censorship  : 

[Special  Correspondence  of  the  Transcript.] 

Tokyo,  Japan,  February  9. 

If  it  be  true,  as  telegraphed  by  "  Ileuter'-  this  morning,  that  "  the  Washington 
cabinet  has  decided  on  a  vigorous  offensive  attack  on  Iloilo  and  on  an  endeavor  to  cap- 
ture the  Filipino  government  of  Mololos,"  then,  so  it  seems  to  me,  the  greatest  mistake 
yet  made  by  the  present  Administration  anil  one  of  the  least  justifiable  wrongs  in 
American  political  history  have  been  committed  and  have  brought  with  them  their 
penalty.  It  may  be,  now  that  the  Filipino  insurgents  have  attacked  our  army  and 
killed  some  of  our  soldiers,  that  there  is  no  way  left  for  our  Government  but  that  of 
offensive  war  and  an  attempted  conquest  of  the  Philippine  islands.  But,  even  under 
this  necessity,  I  cannot  help  remembering  that  had  the  American  Government  been 
generous  or  wise  through  the  months  just  passed  no  assault  by  a  Filipino  army  would 
have  been  made  upon  the  soldiers  of  the  United  States,  and  no  such  dreadful  future 
as  that  now  probably  awaiting  these  people  would  have  confronted  them.  Ignorance 
and  reckless  aggressiveness  in  high  places  in  America  and  too  prosaic  an  obedience,  a 
temperamental  fault  and  mingled  timidity  and  inability  in  the  administrative  authorities 
at  Manila,  will  in  time  be  known  as  the  chief  occasions  of  this  terrible  calamity.  I  do 
not  accuse  without  reasons. 

At  the  first,  in  May  last,  the  Filipino  insurgents  were  encouraged  by  the  American 
authorities  in  their  renewed  hostility  to  the  Spaniards.  They  were  ready  then  to  give 
any  and  full  allegiance  to  the  United  States.  At  the  downfall  of  Manila  no  enthusiasm 
could  be  greater  from  a  people  than  that  of  the  Filipinos  for  the  Americans.  What  at 
that  time  were  the  supreme  directions  from  Washington?  "  Have  no  embarrassing  re- 
lations with  the  insurgents;   make  no  compromising  promises;  be  careful  that  the  way 


CRIMINAL    AGGRESSION:    BY     WHOM    COMMITTED?  19 


for  the  United  States  be  clear  into  the  future.''  Regulations  that  were  doubtless 
wise  and,  under  the  circumstances,  imperative.  But  how  were  they  applied?  In  the 
answer  to  this  question  lies  in  largest  part  the  explanation  of  the  struggle  just  begun. 
Some  evil  fate  seems  to  have  guided  the  movement  step  by  step  from  its  insignificant 
beginnings  to  its  present  portentous  issues.  Clearly  the  United  States  authorities  had 
no  right  in  August  last  or  since  then,  even  to  to-day,  to  offer  to  the  eager  Filipinos 
any  definite  policy  for  the  direction  of  their  mutual  relations.  But,  clearly,  too, 
these  authorities  had  not  only  right,  but  they  were  in  duty  bound  not  to  let  the  Filipinos 
misunderstand  them  or  their  country  during  the  critical  progress  of  events.  Under  the 
circumstances  mutual  confidence,  sympathy,  and  patience  were  imperative.  It  was 
above  all  needed  that  the  representatives  in  Manila  of  the  United  States  Government 
should  go  to  these  people,  just  emancipated  from  Spanish  rule,  and  with  kind  sympathy 
tell  them  until  they  understood  the  facts  without  doubt  that,  more  than  anything  else, 
both  peoples  must  wait  for  the  law's  delays,  for  a  treaty  of  peace,  for  ratification  of  the 
treaty,  and  then  for  a  definite  policy  that  should  direct  them  in  the  future.  In  a  way 
these  things  were  known  by  and  made  known  to  the  Filipinos.  But  that  was  not  enough. 
So  fearful  were  the  American  authorities  that  the  future  might  be  embarrassed  by  their 
words  or  acts  that  very  soon  after  the  capture  of  Manila  not  only  had  official  inter- 
course with  the  insurgent  leaders  become  almost  nil,  and  what  there  was  of  it  almost 
wholly  mandatory  on  the  part  of  the  Americans,  but  the  social  intercourse  also  that  had 
begun  in  the  most  cordial  ways  was  rapidly  lessened  and  constrained.  Then,  it  is  true 
that  so  far  as  movements  were  made  by  the  Americans  either  in  America  or  the  Philip- 
pines appearances  more  and  more  indicated  that  the  United  States  Government  was  more 
and  more  tending  to  assume  the  sovereignty  of  the  islands.  Whether  this  assumption 
was  to  be  for  a  protectorate  or  for  incorporation  of  the  Philippines  into  the  American 
body  politic  was  not  evident,  and  no  one  responsible  for  his  opinions  offered  to  talk  the 
matter  over  with  the  leaders  of  the  Philippine  republic,  then  coming  into  life. 

Through  the  summer  and  the  early  autumn  the  Filipino  leaders  were  not  averse 
to  annexation  to  the  United  States.  Indeed,  I  am  under  the  impression  that  they  at  the 
first  looked  for  and  wished  for  union  with  the  American  republic.  And  though  I  am 
not  in  favor  of  the  annexation  of  these  far-away  lands  to  the  United  States,  I  am  confi- 
dent that  until  towards  the  close  of  the  year  any  politic  representative  of  our  govern- 
ment at  Manila  could  have  enrolled  Aguinaldo  and  his  friends  among  the  most  ardent 
supporters  of  the  proposed  annexation.  Our  whole  attitude  and  action,  however,  seemed 
determined  towards  alienation  and  not  friendship.  The  Filipino  leaders  were,  from 
almost  the  first,  repelled  and  ignored.  Hardly  could  men  have  set  about  in  a  better 
way  to  arouse  resentment,  suspicion,  anger,  and  rebellion  than  the  men  in  charge  of 
the  administration  of  American  interests  in  Manila. 

The  Filipinos  were  made  to  feel  that  Americans  considered  them  not  worth  either 
political  or  social  consideration.  Driven  back  upon  themselves,  their  soldiers  treated 
with  contempt,  their  wishes  not  listened  to  or  respected,  if  heard,  told  nothing  of  our 
Government's  ultimate  desires  or  purposes,  or,  if  told,  left  without  judicious,  sympa- 
thetic explanations  of  the  course  of  events  in  Washington,  —  the  Filipinos  gradually 
accepted  their  isolation,  organized  their  government  more  and  more  thoroughly,  and 
began  to  import  arms  and  ammunition  for  their  own  support  and  defence.  I  cannot 
blame  them  for  having  done  this.  They  could  so  easily  have  been  retained  as  our  allies 
and  friends.  A  sympathizer,  a  conciliator,  a  politician,  in  the  good  sense  of  the  word, 
could  have  kept  them  with  him  step  by  step,  while  the  administration  at  Washington 
was  coming  to  a  consciousness  of  its  own  wishes  and  aims.  But  we  let  them  go;  we  let 
them  misunderstand  us,  or  we  did  not  try  to  keep  them  with  us  as  we  came  to  under- 
stand ourselves  better.  On  our  own  authorities,  not  on  the  Filipinos,  falls  the  blame 
that  the  Filipinos  changed  from  friends  to  enemies,  and  at  last  turned  towards  us  in  the 
trenches  at  Manila  a  hostile  front.  A  more  lamentable  series  of  lost  opportunities,  of 
neglected  openings  for  having  one's  own  way,  of  deliberate  manufacture  of  enemies,  it 
would  be  difficult  to  find  in  the  history  of  nations.  I  am  not  alone  in  this  judgment. 
Could  impartial  observers  from  among  foreigners,  long  resident  in  Manila,  be  heard, 


20  CRIMINAL     AGGRESSION:    UY     WHOM    COMMITTED  .' 


dared  intelligent  American  officers  and  soldiers  at   .Manila  speak,  could  Aguinaldo  and 
his  friends  be  believed,  my  charge  would  nut  stand  witbont  ample  support. 

Our  own  Government  and  the  administrative  authorities  at  Manila  who  acted  for 
the  home  Government,  both  in  ignorance  and  with  recklessness,  cast  aside  again  and 
again  the  very  agencies  that  would  have  brougbt  about  the  end  that  the  annexationists 
have  most  sought.  Through  the  mistake  of  not  having  had  the  right  men  in  the  re- 
sponsible places,  and  through  the  excessive  caution  attending  a  policy  in  the  process  of 
formation  at  Washington,  the  Americans  have  lost  the  allegiance  and  incurred  the  hostil- 
ity of  a  whole  people.  The  Filipinos  once  idealized  the  United  States.  They  were 
ready  to  do  our  bidding  to  the  utmost,  had  we  but  used  the  wands  of  sympathy  and 
confidence.  And  now  here  we  are  at  bayonet  points,  and  the  American  Government  lias 
decided  to  attempt  tbe  "  capture  of  the  Filipinos'  government  at  Malolos."  It  will  be 
doubtless  the  policy  of  the  imperialist  press  now  to  tell  the  American  people  that  the 
Filipinos  are  false  to  their  promises  of  last  year:  are  treacherous ;  not  tit  for  self-gov- 
ernment and  should  be  suppressed,  and  that  tbis  war  should  be  carried  to  its  deadly  end. 
Very  well !  Let  all  the  charges  of  this  kind  be  true,  the  fact  yet  remains  that  our  own 
bungling  rule  in  Manila  bas  impelled  them  to  treachery  and  rebellion.  But  tbe  pity  of 
it,  when  another  record  was  so  easy  to  make!  Had  a  man  of  tbe  President's  own 
temperament  been  in  command  at  Manila,  notwithstanding  tbe  caution  of  tbe  uncertain 
yet  aggressive  Wasbington  Administration,  the  new  year,  I  feel  sure,  would  have  opened 
with  tbe  "  Filipino  Republic,"  anxious  to  be  made  an  integral  part  of  the  great  republic 
of  the  West. 

Were  nations  amenable  to  repentance  and  reform,  something  might  yet  be  done  to 
remedy  this  great  mistake  and  wrong.  But  history,  I  fear,  justifies  no  hope  for  such 
change.  Bather  does  the  present  calamity,  if  this  morning's  telegram  tells  the  truth, 
tempt  one  to  say  :  Let  us  as  a  nation  let  allpretence  at  pbilantbropy'and  national  justice 
go.  Let  us  admit  that  the  Anglo-Saxon  in  America  as  well  as  in  Europe  is  a  ravening 
beast  still.  He  fought  for  liberty  and  independence  a  bundred  years  ago,  but  he  fougbt 
not  for  the  "  glittering  generalities  "  of  tbe  Declaration  of  Independence, — the  prin- 
ciple of  human  freedom,  — but  for  bis  own  life,  liberty,  and  the  pursuit  of  happiness. 
Shall  tbis  new  war  in  the  Philippines  be  proclaimed  a  war  of  righteousness,  a  war  for 
tbe  sake  of  humanit}?  No!  it  is  the  penalty  of  our  own  incompetence  and  folly.  I 
would  not  if  I  could,  make  the  Philippines  a  part  of  the  United  States.  Sooner  or 
later  out  of  such  union  would  come  resentment,  revenge,  and  rebellion,  even  could  it 
have  been  brought  about  in  peace  and  of  good  will.  But  now,  to  make  of  this  people 
our  conquered  subjects  when  they  might  at  least  have  been  made  friendly  fellow-citi- 
zens, what  shame  to  America,  what  a  penalty  to  pay  for  ignorance  and  impotence  ! 

Clay  MacCaulev. 

With  this,  the  case  as  it  now  stands  is  submitted  to  the  people  of  this 
country. 

The  first  edition  of  my  treatise  on  The  Cost  of  a  National  Grime  and 
The  Hell  of  War  was  dedicated  to  the  President  of  the  United  States,  in  the 
hope  that  he  would  meet  the  responsibility  so  as  to  justify  the  quotation  from 
Milton  : 

"  Oli,  yet  a  nobler  task  awaits  thy  hand 
(For  what  can  war  but  eudlesH  war  still  breed?) 
Till  truth  and  right  from  violence  be  freed, 
And  public  faith  clear'd  from  the  shameful  brand 
Of  public  fraud  !  " 

The  President  has  failed.  It  now  remains  for  every  citizen  to  demand  that 
our  public  faith  shall  be  cleared  from  the  shameful  brand  of  public  fraud. 

EDWARD  ATKINSON. 

March  8,  1899. 


THIS  IS  A  PHOTOCOPY  REPRODUCTION 


It  is  made  in  compliance  with  copyright  law 

and  produced  on  acid-free  archival 

book  weight  paper 

which  meets  the  requirements  of 

ANSI/NISOZ39.48-1992 

Permanence  of  Paper  for  Printed  Library  Materials 


Preservation  photocopying 

by 

The  University  of  Connecticut  Libraries 

Preservation  Department 

2001 


University  of 
Connecticut 

Libraries 


39153027650698 


